Practical Guidance on Monitoring for Change

One of the four basic applications of foresight work is monitoring for change.  It may not be the flashiest of activities, and it is a vital component in an effective and ongoing foresight system.

Monitoring is exactly what it sounds like: continuously watching the environment for signals of change.  In the 4 Steps to the Future process, teams begin developing “early indicators” of future change towards the end of the process, right as they shift into ROSIC assessments and before they transition over into full-fledged strategy development.

As with all things foresight, the steps a leadership team can take to develop and apply foresight do not need to be complicated (and they do need to be consistent and continuous).  Below are four simple steps you can take to start building out a foresight monitoring function within your organization.  Note: this assumes your leadership team has completed the basic 4 Steps process.

• Assign someone the lead in actively monitoring for the formal list of early indicators and for continuously encouraging the leadership team to share signals.

• Set up an online space for your team to share observations and “scan hits.”

• Establish a routine (schedule) for the team to actually discuss the signals they’ve been seeing (face to face).

• Create a system/repository for capturing and storing signals (scan hits) the team observes.

Simple and certainly not rocket science.  Follow through and establishing habits and routines is usually the challenge here.  And the most important aspect, far more than the particular tools or platforms to use.

Foresight (insight into how and why the future may be different from the present) is vital to organizations today, and it can be accomplished through simple and focused actions.

As always, contact us today to discuss how we can help your team develop their strategic conversation.